Sunday, 22 March 2009

The change I seek

A couple formerly from might church made the move down under almost a year ago. While they were still here, they were driving a Kelisa and working hard to pay their mortgage. They are in the usual “surviving” mode just like many of us. Work was tough then, with the usual long hours making up pretty much their lives.

They are now renting a pretty decent place in the Melbourne suburb. After both of them landing a job and having worked for a few months, they purchased a 5-year old Honda CRV. They have been travelling around Australia; living life the way it should be.

With the Australian govt paying first home owner a grant of circa AUD15,000; I won’t be surprise if they get themselves a place of their own. Yes, the Aust govt gives grant for buying your first house. As long as you are a resident, you get the grant. There is no such thing such as Aussie-putera.

And you know what? At 5.30pm on a working day, the husband would be at home cooking dinner already.

There are many reasons why people view the grass on the other side being much greener. For me, the above is more than sufficed. I want to live in an environment where I don’t need work my soul away to have a decent living.

And just to digress to let you in on a very interesting observation – throughout my 10-day trip to Melbourne, I have met quite a lot of people (obviously). And having been in conversation with so many of them, only 2 individuals asked me what I work as – one a Malaysian, the other a Singaporean.

It does show who prioritises career in whose life, isn’t it?

P/S: I was quite tempted to say that I work as a janitor or garbage collector. I wonder how the Malaysians and Singaporeans will view me if I say that.

first of all is the adaptation to the working culture. many close friends of mine who studied and graduated here found it hard get into the workforce and also took some time to adjust to the working culture when in it.

for starters, they like to hire people who have "local experience", if you're a new migrant it's a catch-22 situation. you just moved here, obviously you haven't work here before, so how can you get "local experience"? but without "local experience" how can you get a job?? some highly trained professionals had to resort to lowly jobs like telemarketer, salesmen for a few months before they got a decent job.

and then when you finally got your job, there are expectations too. you climb to the top based on "merits". you hardly get there by connection. if someone is used to the whole "connection" thing, then they find this difficult to adjust. and then there's the "work hard, play hard" scenario. some offices have Friday work drinks where the bunch of them go out to the pub after 5pm and drink/ socialise. Asians are not very used to that sorta thing.

And also there are other struggles on your day-to-day life. Really depends on what your values are. Some people feel that they can't take it and eventually went back to Msia. But if your values are for equality, justice, good work-life balance, then in the long run you'll be better off. So are your children.

Over there, janitors, garbage collectors...jobs that people do not wanna do, especially the elite, highly-educated ones who think they're too good for such menial tasks, can draw high salaries. Heard of a guy from China - a house cleaner - now the boss of his own cleaning company with employees that he brings in from China! Opportunities abundant, just have to work hard...unlike the locals!

Life is where the heart is and Australia 'acts' like one...Thanks for sharing Zewt...Even during this difficult time of mother-of-all-crisis, the people that lead this nation think of inhabitants' welfare first.

pavlova - well, i think i am all ready for it. i dont think i am person who made it due to connection. and yes, it's all about the children. and hey... even if you dont make it big in career there, what's the big deal? life is not about career.